N.Y. Congressman in Toss-Up House District Faces Backlash After Photos Surface of Him in Blackface as Michael Jackson

Mar. 15, 2025

Rep. Mike Lawler in October 2023.Photo:Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

“My costume was intended as the sincerest form of flattery, a genuine homage to one of my childhood idols since I was a little kid trying to moonwalk through my Mom’s kitchen,” Lawler, 38, said in a statement to theTimes,CNNand theAssociated Press.

“I am a student of history and for anyone who takes offense to the photo, I am sorry,” Lawler continued. “All you can do is live and learn, and I appreciate everyone’s grace along the way.”

Rep. Mike Lawler in April 2024.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

The pictures were taken around October 2006 while Lawler was a sophomore at Manhattan College, a Catholic college in The Bronx now known as Manhattan University.

“There’s a danger to it even when it might be a homage,” Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, a historian of race in 19th Century America at Smith College, told theTimesof blackface Thursday.

Rep. Mike Lawler in May 2024.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

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“I’m not committing to vilifying the person,” Pryor, who is biracial, continued. “But I don’t think you can say it didn’t mean anything.”

Lawler is a known Jackson fan. Last year,The Daily Beastreported that Lawler was mentioned in J. Randy Taroborelli’s 2009 biographyMichael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, with Tarobelli writing that the future congressman flew from New York to California to attendJackson’s 2005 child sexual abuse trial. (Jackson was found not guilty of all charges.)

Lawler represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Hudson River Valley. He is considered a rising figure in the Republican Party, having defeated longtime Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022. This year, Lawler is in a tight race against Democratic former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is Black.

source: people.com